Back to night shift - How long have you been awake?

[Blowmax10]

I've been up for 22 hours now - been drinking for the last 5 hours

I need to stay up for at least another 5 hours

People just don't understand what it is like to work the overnight shift and then try and transition to a "normal" schedule on your days off. If I got to sleep now I will wake up at 3 in the morning and not do shit tomorrow

You start losing your grip on reality after a while - The alcohol doesn't affect you near as much as the mind altering exhaustion - Its no wonder the CIA keeps Al-Qaeda up for hours on end before they entregate them

I'm so tired I can't for the life of me google the proper spelling of entregate

This post killed 10 minutes, time for more beer

[BarefootLion]

Long enough ago, when I was in school I went to class, worked, then came home and played Everquest, averaged about 4hrs sleep a night for 21 days straight between those 3(yes it was all self imposed so don't feel bad for me) but I understand the delusion that kicks in, but the hallucinations were awesome.

[loop-a-465]

i feel ya, 12 hr shifts from 6pm-6am aren't terrible.. but when you try to switch back to "normal" people time it just kills you. I end up staying awake for at least 36 hours once a week. i cant wait to find a new job

[SpaceKadetKiwi]

I've been working nights for almost 3 years now. It always sucks to do normal things on my days off. I'm either up for 16-24 hours at a time, or if I nap I over sleep and wake up at odd hours. Also now if I sleep at night I ALWAYS wake up by 2 am... What a life. ( I work 11-7:30am)

[Waldo]

I work 7p - 7a three days a week as a respiratory therapist and I have to say the first night sux the most for me because I am up at 7am to homeschool the kids (my wife does the days I have to sleep.... She works notes too) and then work around the house nap from 2 or 3 till 5 (if I can) thengot to work. Then I come home take 50 mg of benedryl and a beer then hit the hay. I am fine then to work the rest of my nights. The off going transition seems to get harder as I get older though....My plan is to open a bottle shop in the next five years and start my transition off nites and cut of the medical field altogether.

[bloberglawp]

Wierd, I like the night shifts better.

I find the first shift kinda sucks around 3 am... but it's the only real long day that I have to stay up for around 22-24 hours straight. The rest of the night shift week is just fine (I sleep like a baby all day when I get home in the morning). When I need to "turn around" I get up at 11 instead of 2-3 pm. At the end of the day, after a couple beers I'm usually ready for bed by midnight.

What really kills me is listening to the live Sunday Sessions on work nights and then not going to bed immediately (partly due to inebriation and online 'tards like myself who wont go to bed). I end up sleeping 4 hours, waking up tired AND hung over (sometimes not quite 100% sober either).

[Ironman]

I spent several years as a dispatcher for a security company working the graveyard shift. I kept a journal which I wish I still had detailing everything I wished would happen to my office. The graveyard shift drove me to the Edge of sanity. Added to it was my newborn son who liked to wake up very early. I thought it would be awesome to be nocturnal until I tried it.

[MNHazmat]

I pretty much have no body clock left anymore. I've worked a mostly nights, sometimes days, often days and nights, work from 10pm to 6am and hey can you be on a conference call at 9am job for the last 10 years. I've elevated sleeping on a plane to an art form and how I haven't fallen asleep driving from Omaha to Minneapolis is beyond me (BN podcasts help).

With all that said, I could never go back to a 9-5 job...